Abstract

Several twin studies of multiple abilities and educational and socioeconomic variables suggest that a single common factor underlies the contribution of mate selection and cultural inheritance to the covariation of such measures. Theoretical analysis shows that this finding is consistent with a mechanism of mate selection in which specific abilities are merely components of a composite latent variable for which there is assortative mating. We question how far measures of specific abilities reflect behavioral traits of independent adaptive significance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)371-376
Number of pages6
JournalBehavior genetics
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1984

Keywords

  • assortative mating
  • cultural inheritance
  • trait correlation

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